


All He Thinks About

by jayballing



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24590224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayballing/pseuds/jayballing
Summary: Claude had a plan and the plan did not involve falling for Hilda.Hilclaude week 2020 Day 1: Confessions
Relationships: Hilda Valentine Goneril/Claude von Riegan, My Unit | Byleth & Claude von Riegan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28
Collections: Hilclaude Week 2020





	All He Thinks About

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy it! For Hilclaude Week 2020.

This was not part of the plan.

His plan, although complex in execution, was very straightforward in terms of steps. Step one was to come to Garreg Mach and learn about all Fodlan future leaders and their aspirations. Step two was to become the leader of the Alliance himself. Step three was to unite Fodlan and take down the church. Step four was to show the people Almyra and Fodlan could be in peace. Step five was to come back home, leaving Fodlan in the good hands of one of the confidants he was bound to meet during his time here.

What was _not_ a step in his meticulous (albeit ambitious) plan was to fall in love with his right-hand woman, best friend, and social butterfly Hilda Goneril.

It started slowly. For all the mischief that was constantly boiling inside him, she had an equal ability to make sure they didn’t get in trouble for it. He remembered fondly one of the first times they got into (and out of) trouble together. It was a long story involving Seteth’s laundry becoming all pink and orange and Hilda finding rags and clothes people no longer wanted and also turning them all sorts of odd colors, so it looked like an accident more than a purposeful prank.

“Don’t you think the orange will go well with his green beard, though? He will look positively fetching.” Claude whispered to Hilda pointing at an angry Seteth during dinner. He would either get rid of those clothes or be forced to wear them. Either way, Hilda and Claude had seen his reaction as they hid in the laundry room while Seteth came to collect his belongings.

Hilda rolled her eyes, but she had a smile on her face. “Honestly, it was such a pain to find those rags and unwanted clothes. The things I do for you.”

Claude thought it might have started then. The things she did for him, indeed. Lazy, procrastinator, delegator of tasks Hilda would put in a world of effort to make sure her and Claude didn’t get caught for their pranks and mischief, as well as their nightly escapades to behind the stables for a bottle of wine they would smuggle inside the monastery every now and then.

As much fun as it was hanging out with her, talking to her, looking at her beautiful face…

_Stop it, Claude!_

Stop. Right. It had to stop. Things weren’t progressing as fast as Claude wanted in the most-ambitious-plan front and he was convinced it had to do with all the time he spent with Hilda. Sweet, sweet time he enjoyed so much.

Claude was sitting by the shades of tree when Professor Byleth sat next to him, giving Claude a jump.

“Gee, Teach! How do you sneak up people like that?”

“We both know that I wouldn’t be able to sneak up on you if you weren’t completely distracted.” Byleth said with his usual emotionless face.

Claude chuckled at that. Even Teach had noticed his head was somewhere else, he just hoped others hadn’t noticed it.

“Teach, could you lend me your wisdom on the topic of love?” Claude never beat around the bush when talking to Byleth. Teach was always so direct and discreet that Claude always treated him with the same of level of trust.

“I don’t know if I have any wisdom to share, but I’ll do my best.” Although he was maintaining his unmoving face, Byleth had a faint blush creeping up his cheeks. Claude was somehow surprise Byleth reacted like that.

“I think I’m falling for someone, but I see it as a distraction for my goals. I also don’t know how she feels about me. Our relationship right now is nice, but I want so much more, and I don’t know if that would ruin both what we have and my determination to follow through my plans.” Claude spoke with frustration in his voice. He wasn’t used to not finding a solution, and this was proving annoying and distracting.

“Well, consider this: what is more distracting, this possible relationship or behaving and acting like you have been this past week?”

Leave it to Byleth to be gentle when telling Claude to pull himself together, but also not holding back.

“I see your point, Teach, but what about her reciprocating these feelings?”

Byleth sighed and finally looked at Claude. “Claude, you are a brilliant pupil. You catch the material from class so fast and you are a born strategist. But, goddess, you can be dense. It’s obvious Hilda has feelings for you as well.”

“How can you be so sure…?” Claude realized his mistake as he saw Byleth’s rare smirk. “Ugh, yes, we are talking about Hilda.”

“The fact that I knew who it was as soon as you asked for love advice should tell you how people in the monastery see the two of you. Say, Claude, has anyone approached you or Hilda in these past months in a romantic way?”

Claude was confused. He didn’t really pay attention to people that were hitting on him or similar things. He knew Hilda had many suitors when they first got to the monastery, but that had quickly dissipated. Neither of them cared much.

“I guess not? I don’t really pay attention, and I don’t think anyone has talked to Hilda either.”

“I know you don’t care because you are interested in someone else, but wouldn’t it make sense for Hilda to be bothered by that?” Byleth was a teacher above everything else and he wasn’t about to feed Claude all the answers he was looking for.

“Where are you going with this, Teach?”

“Have you considered that the reason Hilda doesn’t notice the lack of suitors is for the same reason as why you don’t pay attention to it? Because she is already interested in someone? Claude, most people here think you are already together.”

Claude refused to believe it was that simple of an issue.

“I’d encourage you to speak with her directly. Your friendship with her is precious and I think she would like to know.” Byleth placed his hand on Claude’s shoulder and shook the boy, as if to give him some sense.

“What happened with having no wisdom to give in the matters of the heart, Teach?” Claude, master of deflection, said.

“I still don’t have much to tell you on that topic. You won’t hear me giving you advice on how to court someone or what are appropriate gifts. However, I know you and I know Hilda. You are both important to me and I want to see you happy, and if I can help making you happy, I will. My advice is to give yourself a chance to be happy.” The words were so heartfelt, but Byleth had the uncanny ability of making it sound like he was talking about the weather.

“Teach, you seriously need to unwind.”

\-------------------

Byleth’s words left Claude pensive. Could he really have the best of both worlds? To follow through with his plan while courting a romantic companion?

_It’s not any romantic companion though_ , Claude thought to himself. _It’s Hilda. She is already my right-hand man in every aspect of my life. She would be doing the same except we would be doing, uh, stuff together._

Claude was a well-known smooth-talker, but that’s due to years of being exposed to political intrigue. In his heart, he was an awkward boy who was falling for his best friend.

While he was musing about his (lack) of romantic experience, somebody sneaked up on him the second time that day. He really was off his game.

“Yo, Claude! I got a bottle of wine from Anna today. Wanna meet at the usual spot tonight?” Hilda whispered on his ear as she sat next to him on the dinner table.

He ignored the goosebumps he had when he felt the warmth of her whisper against his ear. Or tried to, at least.

“Hi-Hilda! Hi! Yes, I’ll see you there after curfew.” In a span of 10 seconds, Claude had decided to tell Hilda all of it tonight.

\-----------------------

When Claude arrived, Hilda was already there. She had to rustic metal mugs with her, certainly not the ideal way of drinking wine.

“Finally! I was about to march into your room to get you, but I’d probably just go straight to bed.”

Claude had been pacing in his room for about 20 minutes before heading to their meeting place. No surprise he was late.

He sat down next to her and she poured some wine into his mug first. He grabbed the mug, but didn’t do anything with it. He was watching her to identify some sort of mythical perfect moment to tell her how he felt.

“I’ve noticed you’ve been distracted these past weeks.” Hilda started, without looking at him while pouring wine on her own mug. “I thought we could have some of a, you know, vent session or whatever you want to call it, where I listen and try to help you with whatever is bothering you.”

“Why do you think something is bothering me?”

“You usually feed your wyvern first thing after lunch every day, but you have been feeding it all times of the day lately, as if you had forgotten about it. When you concentrate, you play with the bead on your braid, and you do that a lot in class during lectures, but you are not doing that as often. You look as if you are concentrating and it can fool most people probably.”

Claude was impressed and touched. He hadn’t even noticed the bead thing until she pointed out and subconsciously place it between his fingers.

Hilda was not done, though. “Also, you forgot to return books to the library a once or twice, which is super different from you. You’re always drowning in books, but I know you return them on time so people don’t start noticing the books you borrow.” Hilda turned to look at him and he saw caring eyes and a soft smile. Claude was awestruck by the details she had picked up.

“And these are just some of the signs, Claude, that something was wrong. Now, you can choose to tell me or you can keep pretending every thing is alright with you, but I wanted to make sure you knew I was here for you. We have a lot of fun together, with our pranks and schemes, but,” Hilda now looked at the ground. “I wanted to make sure you knew someone cared for you. For the serious stuff too, you know.”

Neither of them had touched the wine. Claude realized that Hilda never intended on drinking tonight. She wanted to check on him. To know why he was acting weird, but a weird that she was probably the only one who noticed to that degree.

While they talked, they had moved to sit against the wall. Hilda had placed her head on Claude’s shoulder when she decided to no longer look at him.

“You’re right, I’ve been pretty all over the place lately. You… You know some of my goals, right?”

Hilda turned back her face to him and looked puzzled. She wasn’t expecting the conversation to go in that direction. “Yeah, why?”

“How do you feel about them?”

“Well, it sounds like a whole lot of work if you ask me, but if there is anybody stubborn enough to follow through with it, it would be you.” She was now inspecting her nails and looked a bit annoyed.

“You’re my unofficial second-hand man—”

“Woman.”

“Woman. And you are pretty lazy—”

“I work smart, not hard. It’s a matter of perspective.”

“Hilda, I like you and I want to be more than friends and I want you to be my partner in more ways than right-hand woman.”

Claude saw her head snap in his direction and her eyes almost bulging out of her face.

“How is this related _at all_ to all this talk about your plans? I know sometimes I forget to pay attention, but really, Claude, there are more sensible ways of making sure I’m listen—”

She stopped talking when Claude held her face in between his hands. It was dark, but she had brought a candle with her and he could see she was blushing. He also noticed she was breathing through her mouth. He noticed that because he was staring at her mouth.

“I’ve been distracted because I can’t think of anything but you. In class, I think about if I will get to see you that day. During meals, I try to remember if I ever asked you what your favorite dish is. When I fly my wyvern, I wonder if you’d enjoy going on a ride with me. I wanted to ask all of those things, but I knew they were all couple things and I was confused. Why did I want to do these things with you? When did I start falling for you?” There was a level of desperation in his voice.

When he started speaking again, he was whispering. His hands had moved from her face to her shoulders and his head had dropped, as if he was exhausted. “I don’t want us to stop being friends and I’ll always be busy because of my goals, but Hilda, I can’t stop thinking about you.”

A couple of seconds had passed, but to Claude it felt like an eternity. “Hey, Claude, look at me.” He obeyed her and lift his head, finding Hilda biting on her lower lip and frowning her eyebrows. “What do you want to do right now?”

“What?”

“Tell me exactly what you want to happen right now.”

“I want to kiss you until I forget my own name.”

“All you had to do was ask.” And she took his face between her hands and kissed him fiercely. It took Claude about one second to respond, closing his eyes and thoroughly enjoying the experience. Hilda had moved during the kiss and was now straddling Claude, who had his back against the wall. Her hands travelled through his hair and he felt all too warm. His hands were starting to have a life of their own when Claude broke the kiss.

They were both breathing heavily, and a blushing Hilda got off from the position they found themselves in. They were both sitting against the wall again, as if they had just run a marathon. Lack of oxygen does that to a person.

“That happened.” Claude said.

“It did.”

“It was very enjoyable.”

“Did you… what did you say? Ah! Forget your own name?”

“I might have, but technically speaking, _you_ kissed _me,_ so I think we should probably try again with me initiating it this time. For science.”

“I’m game whenever you are.”

“Sweet.”

“And Claude?”

“Yeah?”

“For the record, I like you too.” And then she held his hand. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not super happy with this, but it is what it is. I hope you enjoyed it! I post (when I remember) updates on twitter @jayballing4 if you want to check it out :)


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